Aurora Blinks On Power-plant Issue

In Face Of Protest, City Council Sets A Public Forum

Each proposal to site a peak-usage electricity power plant in the Chicago area has met with vocal opposition, and the latest one proposed for the far western suburbs is no exception.

More than 125 DuPage County residents showed up Tuesday at an Aurora City Council meeting to voice their concerns about a peaker power plant proposed for the city's far northeast side.

They came from more than a half-dozen subdivisions in Aurora and unincorporated Naperville and Winfield Townships to oppose or seek more information about the plant, proposed by Houston-based Reliant Energy Inc. for a 103-acre parcel southeast of Butterfield and Eola Roads.

"We will not go away," said Michael Dunker of Aurora. "We're concerned about these emissions, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, during peak-usage periods."

Steve Arigo of Aurora said, "I'm not sure whether this plant is good or bad, but I do have a lot of questions. It seems to me there needs to be a lot more study on this plant before a decision is made."

Residents from nearby Warrenville and officials of Big Woods Congregational Church also have expressed concerns about the plant, and hundreds of residents from the area have signed petitions opposing it, said Terri Voitik, an organizer in the grass-roots opposition effort.

The council sent the issue back to its Planning and Development Committee, which on Jan. 27 approved the final plan for the facility. That decision was appealed to the full council by Aldermen Robert O'Connor and Tess Wackerlin.

After that appeal, Mayor David Stover and aldermen agreed to hold a public forum on the facility at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday, after which the Planning and Development Committee is expected to again consider the plan.

Because the plant is proposed for an area zoned for industrial use, which allows power plants, it is expected to win approval again. Stover has said turning down the plan would invite a costly lawsuit that the city ultimately would lose.

City and Reliant officials also maintain that the plant would pose no environmental threat to the area--whether in relation to emissions, noise, water usage, vibrations or odors--and would benefit the area by providing enough power for 250,000 homes and businesses during periods of peak-electricity usage, typically on hot summer days.

They also note Reliant must obtain an emissions permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency before proceeding with its plans. That agency enforces noise standards that would limit sound levels to that of a residential air-conditioning unit at the border of the site, they said.

"This body does not set clean-air standards," Bruce Goldsmith told the council.

Goldsmith is an attorney for DuPage Properties Venture Inc., which would sell land at its Butterfield Center for Business & Industry to Reliant for the plant. He said the plant poses no environmental hazard to the area.

"Sound levels at farther distances will be indistinguishable from road noise and other noise in the area," he said.

He added that the amount of water drawn from a 1,000-foot-deep well to be dug at the site would not affect the water supplies of the city or nearby residents.

"Although there are emissions from the plant, they do not pose a health risk to anyone in Aurora or the surrounding area," said Richard L. Benedict, director of business development for Reliant's wholesale group, who also contended the plant would emit no odors.

The plant would take up about 30 acres and be surrounded by about 73 acres of open space. It would include 10 natural gas-fired turbines that are cooled with water and include stacks that would rise about 90 feet high, although four larger turbines would obscure six smaller ones, Goldsmith said.

Reliant also has agreed to offer either the city or the Fox Valley Park District nominal cost, 30-year leases for land along Eola Road to be used for baseball and soccer fields.

Residents of the area said they believe that their neighborhoods are facing too much development pressure. They noted that DuPage County and Aurora plan to fund an Eola Road interchange on nearby Interstate Highway 88; the county wants to extend Eola north through Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; and DRH Cambridge Homes recently launched an expansion of the Butterfield Estates subdivision onto once-wooded land.